A post about baseball? Yeah, I’m throwing a change-up… Let’s talk about two surprise teams in Major League Baseball this year…
The Washington Nationals have displayed more talent and consistency this season than they ever have since the franchise moved to the D.C. area in 2005. Their fan support has sky rocketed, ticket prices have increased, and the Nationals are finally a competitive baseball team. They are in first place in the National League East.
Just as surprising as the Nationals’ dominance is the disastrous season that the Philadelphia Phillies are having at the bottom of the same division. The Phillies won the World Series in 2008 and have won the NL East each of the last five seasons. But this year the Nationals are on pace to win not only the NL East but the pennant too, while the Phillies are currently tied for last place in the division.
The biggest difference between these two teams is age. The Nationals have young guys with barely any Major League experience dominating many of the veterans both at the plate and from the mound. The two obvious examples are nineteen-year-old outfielder Bryce Harper and twenty-four-year-old starting pitcher Steven Strasburg.
However, the Phillies rally around the veterans in their dugout. Two of the Phillies three best pitchers, Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee are thirty-five and thirty-three respectively. In fact, most of the players on the roster are over thirty years old. The Phillies roster has an average age of thirty, the fourth highest in the League. Washington’s average age is twenty-seven, the sixth youngest team in the League.
Very few people were expecting that the Washington Nationals would be in first place in the NL East. Nobody thought they would be the best team in the entire League. Strasburg has pitched remarkably as he is 13-5 with a 2.90 ERA. Harper has definitely brought a spark to this team, becoming the second youngest player to make the MLB All-Star Game. In his third year at shortstop, Ian Desmond has come out of nowhere and has belted a career high 17 homeruns in just 89 games. The Nationals are the first team to notch seventy wins this year and have been by far the most consistent team in baseball.
The Phillies on the other hand, will not win the NL East for the first time in six years. Many injuries have prevented their stars from having productive seasons. Starting pitcher Cole Hamels is the only guy on this team who has performed at a high level this year. The rest of the team has immensely underachieved.
Five-time All-Star second basemen Chase Utley has played in only 34 games this season due to injuries and his production is way down since he returned to the line-up. His career average is .289 but this year he is hitting just .246. He usually belts 20 to 30 homers a year and has represented his team in the Home Run Derby. But this season, Utley has just eight homeruns.
Unfortunately for the Phillies, slugger Ryan Howard has been even worse. Howard is also a former All-Star who has participated in the Home Run Derby. He led the League with 58 homeruns in the 2006 season and was awarded the National League Players Choice Player of the Year. He has hit more than 30 homeruns in each of the past two seasons and led the League in RBI’s in 2009. However, Howard has only played in 27 games this year and has just six long balls. His batting average is also significantly down. He is a .273 career hitter but this year he is hitting a dismal .215.
Long time Phillies fan Michael Miller had this to say about his team’s performance this year: “The most disappointing aspect of our season was the fact that it never began. After Howard went down on the last play of last season, and Utley in the off-season, it never felt like we had a shot.” The Phillies will be playing meaningless baseball to finish off this disaster of a season.
On the contrary, Nationals fans are not used to rooting for a team in the postseason hunt. Washington has not made the playoffs since the franchise moved to D.C. seven years ago. When they were formerly the Montreal Expos, 1981 was the last time that the organization experienced a playoff environment. Billy Hamilton, a graduate from American University (located in D.C.) and an avid Nationals fan, says, “It is hard to believe. I love baseball but never had a team to cheer for when it really mattered. The Nats have finally made D.C. relevant in the baseball world. I have never seen so many fans wearing Nationals gear.”
Now that Jayson Werth is back from injury and the team has acquired Kurt Suzuki to start at catcher, the Nationals are more of a threat than they have ever been. Werth had hit over 20 homeruns in each of the past three seasons before he got injured earlier this year. With his power back in the lineup, and the upgrade at the catcher position, no team wants any part of the Nationals come playoff time.
Two injured hitters from the middle of the line-up can be all it takes to drop a team out of contention. Unfortunately for the Phillies, two of their ace pitchers have also struggled. Roy Halladay is a two time Cy Young winner. He has been considered one of the best pitchers in baseball. But this year, the eight-time All-Star has been battling injuries all year just like Utley and Howard. Halladay missed 42 games this season suffering from shoulder problems. His record is just 6-6 and his 3.80 ERA is higher than it has been in eight years.
The Nationals do not have a problem with injuries but they are nervous about their ace pitcher re-injuring his shoulder. General Manager, Mike Rizzo will most likely shut down Steven Strasburg after a few more outings to keep him fresh for the post-season. The star hurler is coming off a Tommy John surgery in 2010 and the team does not want to take any risks with the pitcher of their future. But this pitching staff is good enough to win the pennant, even without him.
In July, Jordan Zimmermann won NL Pitcher of the Month, going 5-0 with a 1.02 ERA and Gio Gonzalez is 14-6 with a 3.32 ERA. Not only is this team poised to win the pennant, but with this outstanding pitching staff, they are also on the verge of reaching the World Series.
Co-ace Cliff Lee of the Philadelphia Phillies has not had the same success on the mound that Washington’s pitchers have. Lee pitched 13 games before finally getting his first win of the year on July 4 against the New York Mets. Lee is also a former Cy Young winner but you would never know that if you had only watched him this year. Lee has the worst record he has had in his entire career at 2-6, and his ERA is 3.78 just one season after posting a career-best 2.40 in 2011.
The Phillies have simply collapsed this year. After all the struggles this team has endured, the team realized that they have no shot at making the playoffs. So the Phillies decided to get rid of Hunter Pence and Shane Victorino in order to obtain prospects and rebuild this floundering team. Pence was one of their best hitters this year batting .271 with 17 homeruns and Victorino was one of the fastest on the bases with 24 stolen bases. But the Phillies have perhaps thrown in the towel and began rebuilding for next season. “At this point, the season is over. We need to stay healthy and get our pitching staff back into shape. If we can do that, we can take back the division next year,” said Philadelphia native Elvin Johnson who goes to a few games a year.
David Murphy wrote for the Philadelphia Daily News on August 1, “It is not the end of an era, because the cornerstones are still in place. At second base, Chase Utley. At first, Ryan Howard. At shortstop, Jimmy Rollins. On the mound, Cole Hamels…” However, there are other fans that are not so optimistic. Long time Phillies fan Jesse Douds had this to say, “It’s over. We had a good run but this year was pathetic. I think we’re all washed up.”
The Nationals on the other hand have never had so much excitement surrounding their ball club. According to George Washington University student Brian Donnelly who lives in D.C. “All people talk about is baseball. I think the people of Washington are pumped up because we actually have a good team. The Wizards are terrible and the Redskins are even worse. We want to win and the Nationals may be able to win it all.”
Is this season a fluke? Or could this be a changing of the guard? The Nationals look to be serious and don’t look like they’re going away anytime soon. In contrast, the Phillies have a lot of work to do in order to contend for the division next year. The Nationals have many budding stars while the Phillies have some aging All-Star veterans that would like to make a World Series run next year. As of now, the NL East belongs to the Washington Nationals.
*All Stats are as of August 11